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One Bad Trip
Dimenhydrinate
Citation:   Hardcore Roger. "One Bad Trip: An Experience with Dimenhydrinate (exp31342)". Erowid.org. Jul 21, 2006. erowid.org/exp/31342

 
DOSE:
1200 mg oral Dimenhydrinate (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 158 lb
About 3 months ago I had experienced a bad trip on dimenhydrinate and wanted to report it but completely forgot about it. So now that I have found the time I figured better late than never.

I was in my room by myself that evening. I am a junior in high school and I was shit out of hallucinogenic drugs. The town I lived in was completely dry that day for some reason and I was unable to locate any of my hallucinogens of choice. Being an addict of three years, the only answer to this predicament was to substitute with another drug because after all, what’s an evening without trippin’! So I decided to substitute with Dimenhydrinate which I conveniently have access to 24 hours a day, any day. I have taken this drug a couple of times in the past with pleasant results but didn’t do it regularly because I liked LSD better.

My mindset wasn’t the best one I could have been in because I expected that the dimenhydrinate was going to make me sick. But that didn’t stop me from taking a whole lot of those tabs. I downed 24 tabs (1200 mg.) orally with water whereas I would have normally taken 12. Since I was kind of bummed that afternoon I thought I might as well double the dose for a stronger trip and to make up for my lack of acid. BAD IDEA. I waited for the effects to come on sitting in my room at my computer just listening to music.

The following timeline started at around 8:30 pm, about the time I dropped the tabs.

T+0:30
I feel that comforting feeling coming over my body like a warm blanket. I stopped playing the card games on my computer and just listened to the music because my coordination was leaving me and the games were becoming difficult to focus on. Music, as I learned through past experiences, is very important to a high dose dimenhydrinate trip because it settles me down, keeps me grounded, and prevents me from freaking out if the trip gets too strong. So I kept the music going as I watched a few minor hallucinations start to materialize in front of me. These minor hallucinations were fun to watch but not very pronounced. The major ones were yet to come, as the drug has not yet reached its peak. I also note that the comfortable feeling was starting to leave and was being replaced by an odd unstable feeling of not being grounded.

T+0:45
Something doesn’t feel quite right. I think the double dose is starting to take its toll as I slip deeper into that dream-like dimension. The body trip at this time is fairly uncomfortable as I feel as if I am not level with the ground; like I’m standing on an angle. The floor, ceiling, and all of the walls in my room have taken on a rubbery shaking motion. I myself was standing still relative to the earth but my room was absolutely going crazy. I knew that they were just hallucinations so I just watched on in fascination making mental notes of all of the effects taking place before me. If it weren’t for the uncomfortable body trip I would be having a shit-my-pants fun ass time trying to capture all of the visuals. But instead I just stood there like a zombie, a very unpleasant effect.

T+1:00
Oh my god the hallucinations are becoming intense. Everything that I perceived seemed to be crossing the boundary between hallucination and reality. I was talking to people who weren’t there but looked to be realer than real. As if there was actually a person there in real life. At some point in time I shook the hand of one of the people and actually felt myself doing so as I felt the resistance of the other person’s hand grasping my own. Never in my life had I had hallucinations so real that I could touch and feel them. But I didn’t have any control over what I saw and what took place.

T+1:30
I had to take a leak very badly at this time so I decided that it could not wait and I was going to have to take the chance of going into the dark hallway to go to the bathroom. I was walking through the hallway and the most frightening experience I have ever had on drugs happened. The hallway was crowded with people that I had no idea who they were. It was impossible that this could have been real because there were only 3 other people in the house who were all asleep before I took the pills. I figured that since the people in the hallway couldn’t be real that I would just walk through them. But when I tried this I would run into a person and actually hit them. I would be knocked back and the person would turn to me and his face would light up revealing the grotesque face of a human that had died decades ago, the image of a common living-dead stereotype. As this happened they would curse me out using a dialect that I had never heard before but could somehow understand and speak fluently.

This language contained some of the vilest profanities that I have ever heard in existence. All of the walking dead were large in size and I evaluated that each one could whoop my ass blindfolded. I was as careful and courteous as possible as I made my way through the crowd of living-dead giants trying not to piss any off because I feared that if one went to kick my ass that it would be so real that I could feel every bone in my body being broken. Not the kind of chance that I would take. But it was impossible not to collide with any of them because the hall was so damn crowded! Every time I ran into one the face spun around and lit up, as I would be cursed out again in the harshest language there is. I finally made my way into the bathroom and turned on the light. My stay in the bathroom was surprisingly uneventful because the light was too bright for me to see any visuals. I then remembered that the lighting needs to be kind of dim for visuals to be seen on dimenhydrinate. And the bathroom being so well lit that it didn’t allow any visuals to be in sight. I was happy about this.

I finished up and decided that I couldn’t sleep in the bathroom just to avoid the hallucinations. So I mustered up all of my courage and opened the bathroom door to head back to my room. As I opened it I found my parents standing there waiting for an explanation for all the noise I made in the hallway and to whom I was talking to. I knew I was fucked so I didn’t answer and walked back to my room as my parents followed me. I got to my room and turned off the music so I could explain to my parents what was going on. I started to talk to my parents trying to make up the best excuse possible when suddenly they just vanished into thin air before my eyes! I then knew that they were just another hallucination manifested into reality by my own mind. All of it seemed too real for me to know it was a hallucination. This freaked me out hardcore because now I was seeing things that gnawed at my fears and insecurities with no way of stopping them.

T+2:15
This somewhat fun but interesting trip is now turning into a nightmare. The dimenhydrinate for some reason isn’t letting me fall asleep to escape the horror. My entire room has become haunted and possessed by evil spirits. All of the furniture is moving and morphing into ridiculous shapes. Some of them are growing legs and walking around my room laughing at my expense. Everything had a face on it that mocked me in front of the other living furniture and they all laughed. I might have been able to turn this into an entertaining experience if the visuals were bright and beautiful like they are on LSD or shrooms. But the trip I am on is dark, dreary, and full of evil. I feel very alone in the world and horribly detached from it at the same time. I am lying in my bed at this time and have decided that I have seen enough. I shined the desk lamp toward the rest of the room to try to make the hallucinations disappear.

Most of the visuals dissolved from the light but some persistent ones still remained visible; I still heard all of the voices from the ones that disappeared as well. I face the wall and pull the bed sheets over my head. Through the covers I still heard all of the voices coaxing me to come back out. Even scarier I felt their hands touching me through the blankets. I ignored to the best of my ability and remained there for the rest of the night with the hallucinations still going at it.

END OF TIMELINE

I was still hiding under my sheets as mourning came. I didn’t sleep at all and was physically and mentally drained. It utterly amazed me how real the hallucinations were both spatially and in their duration. This was the only instance where I couldn’t possibly tell the difference between reality and a figment of my imagination.

This was the number one most scariest drug experience that I have ever had. I feel extraordinarily lucky that I still have my sanity today (so I hope). A lesson I learned is to reserve and respect these substances for their intended uses because even a minor anti-emetic drug such as dimenhydrinate can produce effects that can leave me hanging on the frayed ends of sanity.

I’m now in the Narcotics Anonymous program with 76 days clean of all mind-controlling/altering substances. Even ecstasy and acid! Those were my drugs of choice that I was just unable quit even if it meant my life. I am on a new chapter in my life where I am working to make ends meet. I’m finally getting my life back and I am feeling myself once again.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 31342
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 21, 2006Views: 33,322
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Dimenhydrinate (17) : Entities / Beings (37), Bad Trips (6), Alone (16)

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